Friday, June 17, 2016

I recently watched Jamie Cooks Summer and was inspired to try smoking some trout. I didn't have a bucket handy to do his method, but I have a Weber Q1200 small gas grill, so I wondered if it would be possible to rig something up.

I came up with the following method. I have repeated this multiple times and have been very pleased with the results. Definitely interested to hear others' suggestions.

The Weber Q1000/Q1200 are the smallest gas grills Weber makes. For a gas grill, you want wood chips rather than wood chunks to smoke with. I use these:

One option I have seen is just to wrap the chips in foil and put the packet directly on the fire. Instead I put the foil in a standard 10 inch Lodge cast iron pan:

Cover the pan with foil:

Poke holes in the foil:

And put the pan on the grill:
This just fits inside the Q1200. I heat this on full gas until it starts smoking. (I've also tried heating it on the stove to get it going while I dress the fish, which works fine if you don't mind getting a little smoke inside the house.)

To prep the fish, just simple salt and pepper and some lemon and shallot slices tucked inside tastes great. I would say the shallot is really key.

To cook the fish gently without putting it too close to the heat, I lay it on top of the foil-covered pan. To prevent sticking it helps to oil the foil, or else just put a layer of lemon slices or greens in between the foil and the fish.

I then cover the whole thing with more foil to keep the smoke in. Some other cover would be more convenient here, perhaps a large pie tin?

Cooking time depends a bit. I'm not that interested in slow / cold smoking, so I just leave it at 3/4 gas and close the lid. The built in thermometer says the grill is ~350 F. For whole fish I do this 10-15 minutes each side. You could definitely play with lower heat and longer if you want. Or if you want to get to eating faster you can throw the fish straight on the grill for a minute after smoking is done.

This one didn't turn out so pretty; not enough insulation between fish and foil. But tastes wonderful!

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I'm a scientist-programmer-cyclist, with side interests in electronics, literature, music, policy, and food. Absurtain will probably feature posts from all quarters, but I'll try to label them well; use the feed buttons above to restrict your interest to major subjects.